Dr. Warrick worked for 33 years at Dow Corning and developed 44 patents in his career. In 1990, he published a book titled Forty Years of Firsts: The Recollections of a Dow Corning Pioneer. He is most known as one of the inventors of Silly Putty.
During World War II, Warrick was working on a substitute for rubber, a valuable wartime commodity. According to the story as told by the Dow Corning Corporation, one interesting substance he discovered was considered a mistake; it was too pliable to be a substitute for rubber. The compound was a result of combining a silicone derivative with boric oxide. Despite being a poor substitute for rubber, it had other, unusual properties. Warrick would call this new product ‘bouncing putty,’ far before it became popular as a novelty and later as a children’s toy.
Click on this link to listen to an oral history with Earl Warrick: https://oh.sciencehistory.org/oral-histories/warrick-earl-l
Read about Earl Warrick and his wife, Jean Davis Warrick, on this page on Saginaw Valley State University’s website: https://svsu.academicworks.com/donors/dr-earl-and-mrs-jean-davis-warrick